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Walking into a Tobias Rehberger exhibition can be a physically exhausting experience. Take for example, the German artist’s most recent show, Home and Away and Outside at Frankfurt’s Schirn Kunsthalle. As a concept, the exhibition— a retrospective of more than 60 works spread across three rooms— is innocuous enough. And then you walk into the first room.

You can’t tell where the floor ends and the walls begin.

Rehberger, who is known for his op-art leanings has painted the entire space in a disorienting array of black and white geometric patterns called dazzle camouflage. It almost feels like a visual inside joke. You can’t tell where the floor ends and the walls begin, as the standard shape of the room transforms into a endless jumble of shapes. What looks like jagged speed bumps on the floor are actually just strategically placed lines. The illusion is only occasionally broken by the sculptures the punctuate the room.

Rehberger has been using this dazzle camouflage technique for a few years now, but the dizzying pattern actually has some interesting roots from long ago.

During World War I, the British navy made an unorthodox decision regarding its camouflage strategy. Its battleships, previously just a basic solid color, were painted in a showy array of geometric zigzag patterns. This razzle dazzle camouflage seemed to make little sense; clearly, the pattern is anything but discreet.

But where regular camo is meant to help blend an object into its surroundings; dazzle camo was about blending an object into itself. By painting on this dizzying pattern, the navy wasn’t trying to hide the ships, it was trying to make it harder for enemy ships to gauge location and speed.

The pattern was a clever optical illusion, and not surprisingly, artists quickly began adopting the cubist style. You can see hints of it in Picasso’s work and Bridget Riley’s mesmerizing pieces, but perhaps the most intense and literal adaptation comes from Rehberger. I’ve always been interested in the pattern,” he says. “I find using it for camo to be a beautiful paradox.”

Even though you know it’s an optical illusion, you’ll probably find yourself tip-toe around Rehberger’s space for fear of falling over. Appropriately, the artist compares looking at his dazzle painting to standing on a swaying, unstable boat. It’s not meant to be idly taken in, but rather experienced. And experience it you will, perhaps through a migraine. “It’s a bit of a problem,” says Rehberger of his work. “But that’s the value of art in general—creating nice problems.”